The "word" is that Thompson is definitely in the presidential race. More from Dean Barnett. If/when he officially enters the race it will be interesting to see how the polls shake out. Right now he is polling really well as someone not officially in the race. There are actually many advantages to not being in the race now -- not having to participate in those early debates for one. Okay, I know there are advantages and disadvantages to participating in the debates, but for someone with high name recognition, and even higher face recognition, like Thompson, I think not being in the early debates has been a plus. I am only basing this on gut feel, and from talking to those who follow such things, but I think he will pull some support from Rudy, but also from the lower tier candidates, as well.
The Politico reports Thompson will announce over the Fourth of July holiday.

It should be interesting to see if Newt will run if Fred hops in. Newt has recently made serious mis-steps by colluding with Hillery and the eco-friendly global warming crowd.

With the conservative base being further alienated (pun intended) by W's pronouncements yesterday and McCain co-sponsering said legislation I expect he's going to loose the most support although any of the front runners who have been wooing the base are generally going to see a loss as most of them are not considered to be 'conservative'.

While I am solidly for Romney, I agree Thompson's entry tremendously helps the GOP and the USA, no matter how it turns out between Thompson and Romney (whichever one gets it, or both on the same ticket).

Talk about heavy-weights against the current crop of Dem candidates. Those "pundits" who have been forecasting a Dem win in '08 are "out to lunch".

(This does, however, seem to crowd out Guiliani, but I think it was going solidly in Romney's direction anyway. This now seems really a two-man race for the top, Romney & Thompson.)

Sen. Thompson is just another Sen. Bob Dole. With the same results. He is not a heavy weight. He most likely is a very nice gentleman. Like Romney he would lose to that woman, Sen. Rotten. Then may God help us.

Fred is a globalist. He's a memeber of the Council on Foreign Relations (David Rockefeller's media-governmental complex, home of Dan Rather, Jimmy Carter, HW Bush, David Patraeus, Henry Kissinger, and practically everyone else who never seems to do what they say they'll do).

He was also a foreign agent for Red China, greasing the the already slippery skids for Beijing in Washington DC. $$$

Of course, he is a member of the neoconsevative (formerly known as "neoliberal" when the Dems ran DC) American Enterprise Institute whose mission it is to bind US foreign policy to the Likud-run Israeli settler movement as if by treaty. Of course, there is no defense treaty with Israel, but if you remind the people of this, you are "anti-semetic". Scratch that: a "holocaust denier"

As a gentile in the pay of the Likudnik neocons, he has been made to publically prostrate himself in the dirt by being another "conservative" voice demanding a complete pardon for the traitorous Scooter Libby. They even made fred sign on the dotted line at the Louis Libby Defense Trust along with other man-cows as Wm (Ace) Bennett.

No, Fred is nothing but a man in a hurry who is happy to be "sponsored" by whoever can make it worth his while. Since he is cancerous, winning is probably not even the point. But being in league with CFR and AEI can open plenty of doors and underwrite a NYT bestseller or two. It's called Networking. And the more he puts out, the more that is kicked back in kind.

As long as everyone knows that Fred is an Insider, not an Outsider, and that you'll get More of Same, vote your conscience. Just prepare for more Abramoff- and Amdocs-type scandals. Fred will be too weak to mind the store.

bD, did you notice Captain Kidd Bond boarding the SS Yellow Cake with arrest papers for Valerie Plame? She now has three stories about why and how her hubbie went to Africa. The Dems are catching on that the pair lied to them about what was going on in Africa. What next? Does Joe go or Jay? Val, well, she gets immunity.
=============================================

Sorry bryanD'irtbag that is to long for me to tranlate. I just called Area 51 and they said they where still open waiting for you. Warmer Metal Works also called and said the had an opening in thier class for those that can't figured how steel melts. Glad to help. (Lord knows you need it)

If Fred Thompson runs...excuse me WHEN Fred Thompson runs, he will be my choice for President Of The United States even though I have been a life-long registered Democrat (well registered for as long as I was legally able to be registered).

And PUH'LEEZE: Orin Hatch? (thx for the link, GOP) Anything Orin has his mercenary ass tied to, turns to crap. He and BJ were champion footsie partners all through the 90s. It was his ticket to FaceTime, thus ruining my viewing pleasure of many a Sunday morning talking head show. Combine with Joe Lieberman: you'll NEVER wake up!

Don't trust political Mormons! Remember what they did to Howard Hughes. You don't wan't broken hypodermic needles in your BRAIN, do you kim?

A challenge for the Fredophiles on here: Give me an objective reason to vote for him. I know that he makes you FEEL good, but that's not good enough. He spent eight years in the senate and apparently did very little.

And just to remind you of a couple things that might dim a glitter -- he voted for McCain-Feingold and after Lamar Alexander dropped out in 2000, he supported McCain for president.

And he was a lobbyist.

Not exactly a glowing resume, is it? But he gives good speeches, and maybe that's all it takes.

That's a pretty stupid thing to say. If there was any reason, objective or not, why YOU would vote for him, I wouldn't vote for him. The lack of a reason for YOU to vote for him is a good reason in and of itself for me to vote for him.

Get it? Neither Thompson nor any Republican is gonna get the vote of those who want the US to loose in Iraq or those who want more socialism in the US. It's that simple.

He doesn't need your vote, he needs average Joe's vote and that he will get long before Hillary does.

And if I wasn't already convinced, tinfoil-hat BryanD's glowing endorsement (11:02 a.m. comment) would have been more than enough to push me over the edge.

Fred is in........http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-05-30-thompson_N.htm

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson has been coy with audiences as he flirts with a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
In an interview with USA TODAY, however, the former Tennessee senator not only makes it clear that he plans to run, he describes how he aims to do it. He's planning an unconventional campaign using blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties.

"I can't remember exactly the point that I said, 'I'm going to do this,' " Thompson says, his 6-foot, 6-inch frame sprawled comfortably across a couch in a hotel suite. "But when I did, the thing that occurred to me: 'I'm going to tell people that I am thinking about it and see what kind of reaction I get to it.' "

Thompson will lose to Hillary. He looks old and will not inspire young people to vote for him. It will be interesting to see if he has the desire or interest to campaign beyond youtube and the internet.

bD, see first Fred/Mitt, then Mitt runs as sitting VP, slavering polygamist defanged. Clear sailing ahead for the GOP for at least a decade or two. Prepare your golden tablets.
===============================

I'm no Mitt fan, but if you think Mitt is going to move over for Fred, when Fred has all that neocon baggage and Scooter's civil trial and Aipac legal trial as noisome divertimenti during the campaign season, you may be sadly disillusioned. And by divertimenti, I mean the opposite of Musique de Table; something along the lines of Musique de Caca, or de Vomir. (No fair checking my faux French grammar!)

"Clear sailing ahead for the GOP for at least a decade or two.-kim"

If Crosseyed Bush's immigration amnesty bill goes through, we're ALL sunk as Republicans. Might as well rename the party the Western Hemispheric Co-Prosperity Sphere Vanguardists, or something Red like that. Corporate Socialism will be codified. The constitution will have been bypassed when the House devolved it's power to the Senate in formulating tax law, which this amnesty bill does. Combine that with W's overriding of national identity in the name of Profit, or as the Bible terms it: Mammon. Welcome to the sewer!

So it will be: (Social) Democrats vs Corporate Socialists. The Republicans may reach for the European Christian Democrat label, but the church-state thing will only lose them more adherents. And the CDU was long ago disgraced, anyway, so what's the point?

So kim, be prepared to become a fellow traveller with Nancy Pelosi or her daughter, in the search for political viability not overshadowed by La Raza. As an upside, the Kennedys are casually gracious and very good party-givers (as long as you go home while it's still dark outside! And covertly auditioning female guests before Teddy could be the ticket to FOT-dom!...sailing...Switzerland...no too-humid destinations...)

PS: Thompson's columns at Townhall and NRO, etc. are ghostwritten. Badly. He thinks you (YOU!) are one of the oafs he PRETENDS to have left behind (in his Horatio Alger-Will Rogers mythology written by someone else for him: "Tippecanoe and Thompson, too!", etc.)

bryanD, we almost never agree on anything but your idea about "corporate socialism," which is actually a perfect definition of fascism, is right on the money. Clearly the good of the corporations has superceded the good of the citizens lately.